In the month preceding the release of his new album Fearless Movement, out on Young on May 3, Kamasi Washington released two extremely different singles (and completely different from Prologue, heard in March). These are Dream State (released April 4) and Get Lit (released April 29). Dream State (featuring André 3000) is an elegant fusion of jazz, classical echoes and funky drum & bass, composing a fascinating nocturnal episode white the soloists in great evidence (and particularly Washington on saxophone and André 3000 on flute). On the other hand, Get Lit (which features George Clinton and D Smoke) definitely veers towards a groovy funk, deeply oriented to the 70s sound of combos like the Parliament (you could cite Clinton himself, when he said that “The desired effect is what you get when you improve your interplanetary funksmanship”). The two songs sound very different, as mentioned, but equally exciting: my curiosity for the album is literally raging.
On Forever, the last single before the release of Fabiana Palladino‘s debut album, the elegant retro-pop of the young artist and composer is enriched with one of the trademarks of that 80s pop sound to which her ideal artistic universe is strongly debtor: the iconic fretless bass played by her famous father, Pino Palladino (who also co-wrote and co-produced the song). It’s hard not to feel a shiver run down your spine when those round and soft notes that we’ve all come to know over the last 40 years begin to punctuate the verse of the song, which until then was played only on the electric piano: the fierce expressivity of Palladino‘s touch, the sensitivity of his playing and the inventiveness of his note choices makes the song literally shine, literally lifting a good pop song off the ground and making it fly towards fascinating and refined soul vibrations. The strings do the rest, and Forever becomes a song of rare simplicity and effectiveness, simply beautiful, just like the best pop songs should be.
There was a time when I fell madly in love with an album by Jamie XX (and I still love it today). It was 2015, and a special friend of mine introduced me to In Colour, an album published by the young English producer (as well as drummer for The XX), which was a work of lightning grace and beauty (even though it remained basically on the dance side of electronic music). In Colour followed another work of supernatural grace, the debut album We’re New Here (2011), crafted in direct collaboration with the late, great Gil Scott-Heron. Since that time, Jamie XX has released a bunch of singles but he has never worked to an LP (to the best of my knowledge). Maybe something is going to change with this 2024, because since January the young producer has released two singles and it looks like an album is on its way. I hope it’s true, but in the meanwhile you can listen to Baddy On The Floor, the last single (out on April 15). The song, featuring Honey Dijon, tries to keep together a clear dance attitude (showing also some 70s vibes) with that veil of delicate melancholy that always covers Jamie XX‘s products. I don’t think it’s his best work (especially if I come back with my mind to In Colour) but I reserve the right to listen with great curiosity to what comes next and I hope it will be very soon.
As usual, Vulfmon (aka Jack Stratton) is here to teach and remind us that taking ourselves too seriously is the first step towards the grave. It feels good to write a song, the latest single released in chronological order from the upcoming album Dot, makes no exception, and I must confess that I don’t know exactly how to describe it, because here the genius borders on the absurd and madness even more than usual. Let’s put it this way: it’s an irresistible and grooving up-tempo, where Stratton plays bass and drums (somewhat soloing on both, and this immediately comes to mind), Jacob Jeffries on Wurlitzer and the incomparable Antwaun Stanley on vocals. Except that you have to imagine the lyrics as a nursery rhyme repeated and improvised following the suggestion of a wild mob of children. It’s not a case that on social media Stratton described the song using the tagline Vulf is on a mission to rescue parents from baby shark. If it seems to you that my description is a little disjointed, watch the video and participate in this joyous work of staggering genius.